Massachusetts Healthcare Program to Include Legal Immigrants

Massachusetts' highest court ruled Thursday that the state cannot prevent legal immigrants from entering a state healthcare program, according to a New York Times report.

The decision moves the state one step closer to providing universal healthcare to its residents. The ruling found that the state violated its own constitution in 2009, when a state budget dropped 29,000 legal immigrants who had lived in the U.S. for less than five years from the Commonwealth Care subsidized health insurance program.

Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the action "violates [legal immigrants'] rights to equal protection under the Massachusetts Constitution."

He dismissed the state's argument that cuts followed federal policies to deny Medicaid assistance to the same pool of immigrants. He said the Massachusetts legislature should not use federal policy as a "crutch."

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